As I spent the better part of the morning dealing with Lulu’s rambunctious behavior, I realized that I have no clear idea of where I stand on the subject of discipline. I feel comfortable in saying only that I am woefully unprepared to hand it out (Gilly agrees).

While I feel relatively confident – as confident as one can be when dealing with the little nibblers – in saying that I will fall somewhere between the extremes of Severus Snape-strict enforcement and Where the Wild Things are levels of abandonment, it’s that wide swath of middle ground that’s giving me cause to ponder.

Do I reward positive behavior and withhold for negative? Do timeouts really work? Is the occasional spanking a bad thing? Do I raise my voice or keep a neutral tone? Do I let Gilly deal with it?

I’m an uncle seven times over, and let me tell you – it’s easy being an uncle. In fact, if you’re doing your job right, sometimes you even instigate their misbehavior and then simply return the child before you have to deal with the consequences. But, from what I’ve been told, there are no givebacks where parents are concerned.

I suddenly realize I have tons of questions and very few answers. I suppose like so many other things in life parental discipline is another one of those Things-You-Figure-Out-As-You-Go-Along, but it might be helpful to have a strategy in place first.